I’ve read in the news that Gloria Steinem just got married. Was she the feminist who said “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”? Or was that someone else? And if someone else, who?
That quote did come from Gloria Steinem, yes.
Maybe she doesn’t need a man, but wanted one.
She may have mellowed somewhat since she made that comment, but also, pldennison makes a good point.
Why would a fish want a bicycle?
Must’ve been the mellowing.
I had a friend with a fish named Bicycle.
I used to date a man called Fish.
I bought some fish that was out of date…smelled really funny. Didn’t come with a bicycle though…
Bernice? Is that you?
pldennison:
Seemed to me that this quote was intended to imply that just like a fish couldn’t possibly have any use for a bicycle, ditto a woman for a man. Like Keeve said, pretty much.
Clearly, she has mellowed out…or she’s found some way that a fish could use a bicycle.
Chaim Mattis Keller
Getting into GD territory here, but her original comment was obviously meant to indicate that she disagreed with the expectation (common at some recent point in US history) that a woman was somehow “incomplete” if she didn’t get married. However it would still be possible for a woman to fulfill her potential and be married. At least that’s the way I interpret the original phrase.
Well, if it was one of these fish, maybe . . . 
JBENZ, when you say it didn’t “come” with a bicycle?.. Would you like to elaborate on that? Or perhaps not. ( I really wouldn’t like to lower the tone.)
Maybe the man in the little boat left his bicycle on the shore. You can make up your own fish joke.
Well after years of acting like she didn’t want a man, she was finally able to catch one. This whole feminist thing was just a ruse to save her from low self esteem, becase she couldn’t get a man. Now, at last, she can settle down, learn to cook, clean, and have 2.5 children, and a dog, and a house in the burbs, and a mini van.
I so happy for her. She will finally be happy, and is no longer denying her natural role. 
She caught plenty fish, used 'em, and threw them back.
Perhaps that is the whole point of the quote if you view it with a positive mind. A woman should not want a man because she needs him. She should need him because she wants him.
Who is to say if a fish would want a bike given the chance?
lol
Great first post!
cmkeller, as a card carrying feminist from the 70’s how ** we ** interpreted the line :
A fish has no dependancy on a bicycle. A fish without a bicycle is as complete of a fish as a fish needs to be.
A woman is complete as a woman with or without a man.
does that help? Keep in mind that the quote came from a time when women were typically thought of as “working towards their MRS degrees” in college and so on.